The number of cross-border legal disputes, including child abductions, dealt with by the UK’s top international body in the field of family law has more than doubled in two years, the organisation says.

The Office of the Head of International Family Justice for England and Wales said in its annual report that family litigation had led to a sharp rise in the number of case requests it handles, from just six in 2006 to 92 in 2010 and 180 last year. It predicts it will handle 240 cases this year.

...

In the report, Lord Justice Thorpe, head of international family justice for England and Wales, notes that 65 per cent of children born in London in 2010 had at least one foreign parent, and predicted that there would be further growth in these types of international dispute.

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York's top court says a divorced Manhattan lawyer is stuck with his losses from an investment with disgraced financier Bernard Madoff that tanked two years after his divorce settlement.

The Court of Appeals has rejected Steven Simkin's argument that he and ex-wife Laura Blank made a mutual mistake in valuing the $5.4 million fund that was actually "nonexistent."

In the days after Kristy Ragsdale’s husband gunned her down in a Lehi church parking lot, divorce filings provided a clearer picture of her killer and the couple’s deteriorating marriage.

Public court records also later detailed her mother’s custody battle for Ragsdale’s two young sons.

Now Utah state courts have closed off thousands of filings in family law cases from public view, with court officials citing privacy concerns as the state moves to exclusively electronic filing. But the change has some questioning whether the rule insulates judges from scrutiny and hurts the public at large.

The rule, approved by the Utah Judicial Council, went into effect April 1 but is retroactive and means most filings in divorces, protective orders and other domestic cases will now be available only to the parties involved. Judgments, orders and decrees will remain public, as will the case histories and hearings.

One rape victim who was forced to wait 24 years for her rape kit’s results is now taking action to make sure other women in her predicament aren’t subject to the same backlog.

Carol Bart, 52, was kidnapped in 1984 – her assailant repeatedly raped her at knife point before letting her go. Though she got a rape kit, which took samples of her attacker’s DNA, the kit sat on a shelf collecting dust for nearly a quarter century.

When it was finally tested, the DNA produced a hit, but the five-year statute of limitations had already come and left, leaving little justice for Ms Bart, who had suffered decades of anguish.